Family History: How I got started
Last updated at 16:18, Tuesday, 20 October 2009
Around twelve years ago I would sit with my late gran as she compiled information that she had researched on her family history. After seeing photos of my two and three times great grandfathers and being told a story of how my great great grandfather was murdered the day before he was set to sail off with the navy I was hooked and wanted to know everything.
My gran passed away 6 years ago and after which I lost interest in researching family History until a few years ago when my other grandmother asked if I could help her research her family tree as rumour had it we were descendants of the 1600's Pilgrim John Bunyan. She was happy to foot the bill if I could do the rest.
So my task had been set and I have to say I was excited history had always interested me especially when it was personal. I jotted down some information from a family bible we had and set about tracing a link to the Bunyans. Now apparently mid 1900's this link was set in stone as letters and notes had been passed down through history, highly likely they would be worth some money today, however my great grandmother (Nana) burned them all as she did not believe in holding on to things she also nearly burned the only image of her own mother which was a painting from around 1908 a few years before she lost her life after giving birth to my Nana thankfully my Grandma stepped in and rescued the image from going up in smoke to preserve at least a little bit of our family history.
I started a free 14 day trial with www.ancestry.co.uk and set to work on finding my past. Now when I was younger my poor gran spent most of her time and money on bus trips to the local County Hall where she would sit for hours looking at records on Microfiche whilst jotting down anything of relevance. Today the Internet has advanced in such a way that you have a mass of information at your fingertips and hundreds of different sites providing you with a glimpse in to your past
It did not take long to find census returns of my grandmothers grandparents living in Gateshead and seeing who they were and what they done for a living brought back the excitement I had for family history when I was younger
Speaking with my Grandma she told me of a story of how my Nana came to be brought up by her grandparents and that it was thought that her father had emigrated to the USA. Having a passion for all things American my focus on our link to John Bunyan was dropped and I made it my goal to track down what had happened to my Great Great Grandfather Alfred Robson, my determination paid off two years later which I will go on to talk about in further posts whilst helping you get started in tracing your own family history.
Stu Taylor
First published at 12:09, Friday, 21 August 2009
Published by http://www.hexhamcourant.co.uk
Have your say
Hello
I need help please.My late father Lesley Baker, was brought up in Basket Street. By his grand mother, who went to an orphange in Scotland & brought to her home dad & his sister posibly Eleanor or it could have been his mothers name as his parents died young. So If any one can throw a light on this I'd be grateful. Dad travelled to Cardif to find work where he met my mother. Dad lived with his grand mother from a young age.Yours Eleanor x x xIt's with interest I read the article as I to am tracing the family history.
Posted by Eleanor Lewis (nee Baker) on 11 September 2009 at 20:49